The world of pirates is very fascinating. The world is full of adventures, unexpected moments, and magic. As educators, perhaps we do not suspect that the world of pirates can be an excellent inspiration in the field of education, especially in teaching and learning activities. The world of pirates, which is portrayed with capriciousness, is filled with despicable acts such as stealing and brutality, turns out can be combined into interesting learning methods to achieve the intended learning aims.
Being a teacher nowadays really requires pirate spirits. Why is that? Pirates are ‘free’ and do not bind themselves to the laws that apply in any place. Bold, adventurous, and happy to set foot into unknown territories even without a guarantee of success. They are full of creativity, independence, and able to take risks but always respect fellow crew members of various backgrounds.
So, why do we need so many teachers with the spirit of a PIRATE in our era? Here are two reasons for those questions:
- Facing big waves and challenging times. Today’s world is different from the world 10 years ago, where jobs considered the most challenging were those working in economics, managing businesses, and others. However, if we look at the last three years, the challenge for teachers is enormous. One profession with the highest adaptive level facing the modern world during a pandemic is a teacher. During a pandemic, teachers were the first to be shaken because school activities had to stop suddenly. Teachers must recover faster, change teaching strategies according to the situation by utilizing digital technology, and change approaches to students so that the learning process continues to run effectively.
- Changing Time: The teachers are currently educating the alpha generation who experience rapid changes. Not only in technology but also changes in their mental well-being. There is a book called I Generation (internet generation) that provides objective statements regarding the fact that today’s children are more vulnerable to the mental health issues. With this fact, teachers must ‘sail’ to deal with these vulnerabilities.
So, how to teach like a Pirate? The word PIRATE is actually an acronym for essential elements:
P: Passion
I: Immersion
R: Rapport
A: Ask & Analyze
T: Transformation
E: Enthusiasm
1. PASSION
Passion is not something that is given once but remains forever. Like the love for a human being or other things, passion for teaching must be nurtured. Love for the world of teaching will make teachers tirelessly do their job, not afraid of failure, no matter what people say. Teachers do not always have to love everything they teach. However, passion can be a driving force for teachers to be able to pursue the desired results.
There are three types of passion:
- Passion for Teaching Material. In teaching any subject, of course, there are certain topics that a teacher enjoys the most. However, it is undeniable that a teacher must also teach some material they do not enjoy. Sometimes, they have to fill in some teacher vacancies in other fields. Believe it or not, the teacher must teach subjects that are not in their preferred field. How to deal with teaching content that they are not passionate about? This is where it important to have the other two types of passion.
- Passion for the Teaching Profession (Professional). Passion is still within the profession’s scope but it’s not limited to the teaching content. Teachers need to ask themselves what motivated them to choose the teaching profession. Rarely do people become teachers because they like certain teaching material. Mostly, people become teachers due to this passion of the profession that gives ‘soul’ or ‘fire’ to the content being taught.
- Personal Passions. Teachers need to find their own personal passion. For example, you are a teacher who is passionate about singing, sports, farming, cooking, sewing, magic, or other things. So, to maintain a passion for teaching, you need to find as many ways as possible to incorporate your personal passions into your work as a teacher.
2. IMMERSION
Teachers need to fully dedicate themselves to be present with students. That way, students can say, “While the teachers are teaching us, they are not doing anything else.” Students can be aware of whether a teacher is present or not. Being fully present causes teachers to be irreplaceable by anything, even technology.
3. RAPPORT
The most challenging part of teaching is winning the hearts of the students. First and foremost, students need to be involved in every learning activity in the classroom. Teachers are obliged to give fair and even turns, and attention without teasing, reprimanding, or negatively affecting students. The child who needs the most attention is usually the child who seeks out the teacher in the most unpleasant way. For this reason, students need to feel loved and valued by their teachers. The best way to build rapport is to relate what we teach to what interests them. Building rapport (good relationship) means:
- Good relationships between teachers and students.
- Good relations between the students themselves, especially during the post-pandemic period where children experience ‘communication shock’.
- Give yourself a target: I have to win him/her over; I have to get to know them.
4. ASK & ANALYZE
Teachers must analyze the content they are teaching and ask themselves how can it be presented to students in a creative and exciting way. However, creative ideas do not suddenly appear. It requires active involvement with the creative process, and a deliberate search involving active exploration. Teachers must target what they want and immediately try to achieve it. Teachers have to commit, work on incorporating creativity into the classroom, and be open to new ideas and suggestions. Next, the teacher must recognize where they need assistance, and then look for that assistance. Once the teachers are fully participating in the process, the Law of Attraction occurs, which can be seen from the following 3 points:
- We focus on seeing what supports the process of preparing material
- When we commit to being more creative, we will find and join small groups with the same frequency
- When we have started something creative, we will realize that the students’ responses are different because our current perceptions are also different.
5. TRANSFORMATION
For most students, school seems monotonous, uninteresting, and boring. A class only has two possible roles, namely being an ‘antidote’ or being one of the contributing factors to this negative impression. Seth Godin, a businessman, author, and public speaker from the United States calls something special, worthy of discussion, attention-grabbing, extraordinary, new, and exciting a ‘Purple Cow.’ Purple Cows are different from boring Brown Cows because Brown Cows are too familiar or commonplace. Teachers need to present the Purple Cow class! Classroom transformation is about being different or unique which increases learning effectiveness.
6. ENTHUSIASM
Enthusiasm is a commitment that teachers should have in order to always be passionate in teaching. Whatever subject you teach, the way in which we teach it has a more powerful and lasting impact than the content itself. There are two ways to ‘ignite the fire’ within yourself: the acting principle (remember the enthusiasm of someone you admire and act in this way) and changing your focus in a direction that builds more positive spirits.
Find the video of a discussion about teaching with a pirate spirit (teach like a pirate, love like a parent) with Ms. Elice Chandra by clicking the YouTube ‘join’ button for Mentari Group through the link below: https://www.youtube.com/@MentariGroup.
